Registered sex offender guilty of making indecent images of children – Tom Jackson prosecutes
Park Square BarristersOn 2 July 2021, Tom Jackson appeared on behalf of the Crown Prosecution in the Magistrates’ Court, in the trial of a man alleged to have committed offences of making indecent images of children (Category B and C) and breaching his Sexual Offences Prevention Order.
The defendant had told the police that he did not use or own USB sticks, such as the device some images were found on, nor could the laptop, from which further images were found, access the internet. The devices were intrinsically linked and also held compromising images of the defendant.
Four experts were involved in producing reports for the proceedings and live expert evidence was required at trial due to its contested nature. In his meticulous approach to the case, Mr Jackson’s work with the Crown’s expert and expert reports negated the need for the defence expert to give evidence by reducing the defence report to agreed facts.
The case, which was unusually complex for the Magistrates’ Court, also consisted of agreed bundles of evidence and a particular legal dispute on the definitions of ‘making’ and ‘accessing’ such images. Mr Jackson successfully argued that due to the defendant’s knowledge in technology and the crossover in file paths of ‘inaccessible’ and ‘accessible’ images, the usual definitions did not apply, and that the defendant ultimately had knowledge of and access to the images created.
The defendant was found guilty of all charges following the all-day trial and sentenced to 52 weeks’ immediate custody in total.
Mr Jackson is a Grade 2 Panel Advocate and deals with increasingly complex matters in the Crown Court across the North Eastern Circuit.
Contact Mr Jackson’s clerks
Andrew Thornton on 0113 213 5202
Rebecca Wilson on 0113 213 5203
Hannah Dempsey on 0113 213 5211